Heretic
by storm101
Summary: Tenpou discovers something in the Records that shocks him.


To most people, Tenpou Gensui was seen as brilliant, scatter-brained, and probably one of the best Field Marshals the heavens had ever had. To those who knew him, he was brilliant, scatter-brained, and the best Field Marshal the heavens had ever had, but also forceful, impulsive, manipulative, and extremely, extremely, resourceful.

So when Konzen Douji had refused to tell his childhood friend his creation date, because "he didn't want a big fuss over just another day," end quote, Tenpou decided to call that resourcefulness into action. Admittedly, it would have been simpler to just _ask _the blonde, but if Konzen didn't want to cooperate, then he'd go straight to the source.

This was the reason that Tenpou was wandering down the hallways of the Records Offices, stacks of books going back to the founding of heavens almost reaching the vaulted ceiling. Dusty tomes were piled around him, not unlike his own office, actually… but he was on a mission. The older documents would have to wait. He himself didn't remember much of anything about his own creation and subsequent presentation, but he knew it had to have happened. After all, no gods were born; all were created by the more powerful ones. Most of the army was created by the Jade Emperor, and the Kanzeon Bosatsu created most of the bureaucracy.

Strangely enough, he was created by the Kanzeon Bosatsu according to her. She liked to pull pranks, but he _hated _the idea of the weak and easily manipulated Jade Emperor was his… father? Creator? Whatever. He could figure out the phraseology later. For now, he needed the creation records. "Here we are…" he murmured, holding the glass covered oil lamp a bit higher. "Now, he and I are about the same age, and I can find the presentation date first and work backwards from there." Pulling a book at random off of the shelf, he flicked it open and sat down to read, knees up in his usual position. Pushing floppy brown hair out of his eyes, he scanned the book as he straightened his glasses.

"Hmm… so we were presented together, according to this…" he murmured. "I'd have loved to remember that…" Flipping backwards through the book, Tenpou hummed again as he found Konzen's creation date. "Here we are. That's odd, that means we were created on the same day…" he ran his finger down the page. Creation date, creation date, creation date, creation date, birth date, creation date, crea—wait, what? Tenpou's eyes scanned back up. "Birth date?" he whispered, staring at the word.

Most people would dismiss it as a typo.

Tenpou Gensui was not most people. He knew the importance one soldier could make in a battle. Likewise, he knew the importance that one word could make in a sentence, or a story… or a record.

There was a slim chance that this was accidental. There was a larger chance that this was proof of another heretic. _Birth, _not _Creation. _Gods were not _born. _They had never been _born. _They had always been _created_. Or, in the case of the Kanzeon Bosatsu and the Jade Emperor, just were…

He scanned the page again.

Birth Date: September 21, 1125

Creators: Kanzeon Bosatsu, Sandhya

Presentation Date: September 21, 1128

_Three years? _Tenpou wondered. _That's a long time… if it is a typo, the child would have been around six by the time he or she was presented. People would have noticed that. Meaning, the child really was born, not created. _

Name: Tenpou

The field marshal blinked, and blinked again. "Me…?" he whispered into the darkness.

--

Okay, so I believe this story idea deserves some explanation. I blame the dots. So, first thing I noticed was that Kenren has the same chakra design that the demons Homura "confers divinity" to does. Second thing I noticed was that Tenpou doesn't even have a dot. Most of the gods in Saiyuki do have some sort of design on their forehead. Jiroshin and Shien have different ones than the majority, and Zenon does not have one at all, because of the part demon thing. At least, that is my understanding of it. Hence, there must be a reason that Tenpou does not have one. While this was originally a Kenren centric idea, I ended up moving to Tenpou instead. So, review my little prologue, please? This story will continue, I promise!!


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